tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post3212804873879090319..comments2015-03-03T16:42:01.670-05:00Comments on Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Fragrance of roses / MON 1-9-12 / Doughnut shapes mathematically speaking / Fantasy realm of C.S. Lewis / Like Dubai's Burj KhalifaRex Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145707733877505087noreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-21730434437527026802012-02-13T18:00:08.228-05:002012-02-13T18:00:08.228-05:00I&#39;m with MikeM: of COURSE Steve Miller! Seal??...I&#39;m with MikeM: of COURSE Steve Miller! Seal?? Seal who?<br /> This is a nice one; if really a debut (how would we know that?) an impressive one. Cool indeed to see Mr. DARWIN in the puzzle, instead of amongst the clues. Pretty clean fill; I liked that not only is the CAT among the birds--but he seems to be saying &quot;SHH!&quot; so we don&#39;t frighten them away.<br /> The SW got a bit quirky; when I saw the Q-cross--both ways sans U--I thought he was going for the panny. Then, close by, ATOZ. I wish someone, if they must use that entry, would give a shout-out to the librarian of STTOS&#39;s &quot;All Our Yesterdays,&quot; and to Ian Wolfe, the marvelous actor who played him.<br /> Oh, the NW? Yes, ILLS occurred first to me, too--but that lasted about two seconds, because there&#39;s no I in WOLF. A lot of the clues were Mondayishly slo-pitch softball, but I did love &quot;Thief, in brief.&quot;<br /> New or not, Mr. Dewey, good job.Spacecraftnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-42785252929719148412012-02-13T16:32:44.750-05:002012-02-13T16:32:44.750-05:00Typical. A very nice Monday puzzle, but we must f...Typical. A very nice Monday puzzle, but we must find something critical to say: (very) slight theme, forgettable, absurd rant on &quot;tall&quot;. I enjoyed the puzzle, and wish there had been a J. That is allrain forestnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-74303012300887307972012-02-13T15:37:39.442-05:002012-02-13T15:37:39.442-05:00@Dirigonzo - It IS interesting how topics are brou...@Dirigonzo - It IS interesting how topics are brought up and others glom onto it. I wonder if it is the ease of the puzzle and one that is not very flawed. Without any really bad things to note, people digress. I would take that as a compliment Mr Dewey!<br /><br />Enjoyed the puzzle today but let zoned stay instead of changing it to DOZED. Bad me for not going back and looking closely at that corner. Solving by paper has that effect sometimes.Mighty Nisdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604834076817509735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-82838056590793596652012-02-13T14:56:01.796-05:002012-02-13T14:56:01.796-05:00Strange that such a lovely puzzle stirred up so mu...Strange that such a lovely puzzle stirred up so much unhappiness among the commenters 5 weeks ago (dare I say they were a bit &quot;peckish&quot;?) Rex used to step in occasionally when the comments went far afield or got personal but lately, not so much. ACME must have felt like that poor canary, caught smack in the middle between the eagle and the hawk.<br /><br />This puzzle got my solving week off to a much better start than last week when I DNF on Monday and Tuesday!Dirigonzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03903353503511480168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-72720658359832203282012-01-10T03:43:40.276-05:002012-01-10T03:43:40.276-05:00@pk
Thanks!!!
I really just rang back in to commen...@pk<br />Thanks!!!<br />I really just rang back in to comment on Tuesday&#39;s puzzle but as it&#39;s not been posted yet, I&#39;ll comment one last time.<br /><br />I should know better than to comment to an anonymous, esp a mean one, but i just wanted to say, i was only trying to back up @two ponies who seemed upset by @anon 10:27am clearly spoiling comment.<br /><br />Obviously i don&#39;t care about off topic things, i know i can be the worst offender of that in some eyes (iim sorry, @anon 8:31pm but evil doug&#39;s self-appointment of calling me on my perceived hypocrises and narcissism has that angle cornered!)<br />But for the record, my first comment today was not at all about myself and only about the puzzle...<br />And my second was a direct response to someone, who has asked on my behalf for a role i do not want...while trying to explain why i was happy in the role I&#39;m already playing...<br /><br />Plus i know how hurtful it can be, esp for a first time creator, to have criticism heaped, which may not even be warranted...or to have your day in the sun be totally derailed by a way off topic discussion, <br />(even tho i know it was @Rex who brought up his love for Downton Abbey to begin with...)<br /><br />Anyway, i wasnt censoring, I was talking about spoilers, not going off on tangents.<br />And yes, you have embarrassed me...in an anonymous sort of way...despite your &quot;denied&quot; intention, you succeeded! (But don&#39;t worry @pk, i won&#39;t melt!)Acmenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-19540046779339388312012-01-10T00:43:22.856-05:002012-01-10T00:43:22.856-05:00Humble flumdy dumph!Humble flumdy dumph!pknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-31889326978335482862012-01-10T00:19:45.277-05:002012-01-10T00:19:45.277-05:00@Anon at 11:33...
Anon at 10:57am did in fact giv...@Anon at 11:33...<br /><br />Anon at 10:57am did in fact give away something pretty key.<br /><br />JenCT - you said it succinctly.<br /><br />Fellow Downton fans...We come here when we&#39;re done with the puzzle - not when we&#39;re done watching the snooty Brit soap, so please don&#39;t spill the beans!Titahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16368251255494687496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-26699044289356739512012-01-09T23:56:04.506-05:002012-01-09T23:56:04.506-05:00I only mentioned Downton b/c Rex mentioned it rece...I only mentioned Downton b/c Rex mentioned it recently, and since so many of us seem to think alike about many things, diverse a group as we are, I wanted to see what you thought.<br /><br />@Two Ponies: Yes, that&#39;s the guy. The real Earl discovered King Tut&#39;s tomb. Seems he had pulmonary problems and spent his winters in Egypt for many years as the English winters were too cold and wet for his health. <br /><br />Having said that, I won&#39;t listen to anything approaching criticism of this blog&#39;s angel of light, ACME. <br /><br />Did not realize until I came here that this was a debut puzzle. Congratulations, Mr. Dewey. I can only hope you are more than 15 years old.pknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-15818144685990500392012-01-09T23:33:11.270-05:002012-01-09T23:33:11.270-05:00Sorry JenCT, but no one on this blog has spoiled t...Sorry JenCT, but no one on this blog has spoiled the ending of any show/movie...from what I read, I saw 5 people make general comments about enjoying a show that started its second season last night. None of them gave away any ending--NO SPOILERS HERE!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-69203971617987112092012-01-09T22:07:51.639-05:002012-01-09T22:07:51.639-05:00Pete@ 7:13 - I don&#39;t go out on New Year&#39;s,...Pete@ 7:13 - I don&#39;t go out on New Year&#39;s, don&#39;t even take advantage of the free open house at my club, but fail to understand what that has anything to do with what I said. <br /><br />Skua 76 - Even when Rex has turned his Blog over to others he has still expressed his opinion.<br /><br />PS. In case you haven&#39;t noticed there are plenty of people here who disagree with our host. I&#39;m trying to keep him going longer, not burn him out.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-59328742362123010862012-01-09T22:01:11.275-05:002012-01-09T22:01:11.275-05:00This week&#39;s relative difficulty ratings. See m...This week&#39;s relative difficulty ratings. See my 8/1/2009 post for an explanation. In a nutshell, the higher the ratio, the higher this week&#39;s median solve time is relative to the average for the corresponding day of the week.<br /><br />All solvers (this week&#39;s median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)<br /><br />Mon 6:01, 6:50, 0.88, 7%, Easy (9th fastest median solve time of 133 Monday puzzles)<br /><br />Top 100 solvers<br /><br />Mon 3:18, 3:40, 0.90, 9%, Easysanfranman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/15118732156312301425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-14890105800782539602012-01-09T21:30:26.338-05:002012-01-09T21:30:26.338-05:00@Anon. 8:31: people talk about all kinds of thing...@Anon. 8:31: people talk about all kinds of things on this blog, but it&#39;s generally understood that spoiling the endings of shows/movies isn&#39;t done, out of courtesy to those who haven&#39;t seen them yet.JenCThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18290169184354765840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-87390623985971928052012-01-09T20:31:55.089-05:002012-01-09T20:31:55.089-05:00Acme,
I do not mean to embarrass you either, but y...Acme,<br />I do not mean to embarrass you either, but you wrote 1 paragraph telling the Downton commenters to leave &quot;this one to comments on the puzzle...&quot;<br />Then you wrote 4 paragraphs about yourself.<br />You wrote 1 paragraph about the puzzle.<br />Rex is the one who first mentioned the unmentionable tv show on this blog. So if a few of us commented, so what!!?? Since when do people on this blog stick to just talking about the puzzle??Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-15391111937072234132012-01-09T20:08:28.068-05:002012-01-09T20:08:28.068-05:00Wow...a great debut. I wouldn&#39;t come here if I...Wow...a great debut. I wouldn&#39;t come here if I didn&#39;t appreciate Rex&#39;s opinion and Acme&#39;s thoughts. Definitely not for the birds...although I almost wrote in FLY LIKE AN angel before I figured things out.<br /><br />Seal...that was a different take, thanks for posting.skua76http://www.blogger.com/profile/15450051465313263422noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-26027720125930404732012-01-09T19:13:51.742-05:002012-01-09T19:13:51.742-05:00@JFC - Do you wander around on New Year&#39;s day,...@JFC - Do you wander around on New Year&#39;s day, going from Open House to Open House, telling the host that while their guests are superior to the party down the street, their house isn&#39;t as nice and their dip sucks? No? Why do that here?Petenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-91859122875039946072012-01-09T18:41:35.223-05:002012-01-09T18:41:35.223-05:00Acme,
I did not mean to embarrass you, but was on...Acme,<br /><br />I did not mean to embarrass you, but was only trying to make the point to Rex to do something that could improve IMHO what is already a very popular Blog. <br /><br />Like Sgt. Schultz, I know nothing about puzzles but I always get Mondays and Tuesdays quickly (the rest of the week, that’s another story), so I know these are easy and intended to be. I wonder if they should be analyzed the same way the puzzles are later in the week. It might be good to get a different viewpoint on these once in a while.<br /><br />Let’s take Rex&#39;s extended discussion of TALL:<br /><br />“Clue on TALL is pretty ridiculous (11D: Like Dubai&#39;s Burj Khalifa). Michael Jordan is TALL. Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. TALL is bathetic in the extreme. Calling that building TALL is like calling the Great Wall of China LONG. Understatement. Clue out of proportion to answer. Absurdity.”<br /><br />Rex, of course, is right, but he is often absurd either to make a point or be funny. So why be so critical of someone else’s absurdity? In fact, it is so absurd that I think it was intended to be that way to be funny, so I actually laughed at it whereas Rex apparently grimaced.<br /><br />What was eerie in all that you said was the one line that is so similar to what Will Shortz recently wrote. Frankly, I do not know how one person could do this every day of the week with all that must be done. In that respect alone Rex is amazing.<br /><br />I&#39;ll probably get pelted for this but I can always call on Evil Doug to protect me.... <br /><br />JFCAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-5813061033756847622012-01-09T18:35:04.811-05:002012-01-09T18:35:04.811-05:00Nice, easy Monday for me. Writeovers at HAsS, dat...Nice, easy Monday for me. Writeovers at HAsS, date/YEAR. It occurred to me the canary made a canape for the eagle and the hawk.<br /><br />Watching Downton, enjoying it immensely. The ballet was great, too, and, fortunately, I had ordered a matinee ticket back in Dec.Sparkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11149915526159432838noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-68268892443335699282012-01-09T17:55:36.803-05:002012-01-09T17:55:36.803-05:00@lewis @john v @archaeoprof...would be great to ge...@lewis @john v @archaeoprof...would be great to get together. Maybe Raleigh?chefbeahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15195945085405126511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-56379935126595753662012-01-09T17:45:44.698-05:002012-01-09T17:45:44.698-05:00Brava,@andrea!Brava,@andrea!machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06794371617847975218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-23515766724198076072012-01-09T17:23:04.269-05:002012-01-09T17:23:04.269-05:00@two ponies
I&#39;m with you on the spoilers...the...@two ponies<br />I&#39;m with you on the spoilers...there must be a Dowton abbey blog somewhere that folks can comment on leaving this one to comments on the puzzle...<br /><br />And on that note @jfc:<br />Thanks for the support and compliments, but this is rex&#39;s blog so he 6is more than entitled to his comments on Monday puzzles...<br />i still feel lucky to have a place to chime in with my increasingly difference of opinion! ( how i long for the days when @rex used to be word for word insync, in my mind...one or both of us have changed...<br />For example, I&#39;m still smarting over my PRETTY UGLY puzzle comments when for me that was the best puzzle i had made in years!)<br /><br />I didn&#39;t want to directly respond to the shoutouts, but since you&#39;ve been making them regularly, i feel i must say<br />if i wanted to blog Mondays, i would start my own blog, but i love this one, so i have to respect @rex rants about things i cherish and feel satisfied there is an outlet for what i would like to say without any of the work!<br /><br />You may have no idea how in general positively this blog has affected my life and creativity and mental health! Just from the sweet comments of the other bloggers.<br /><br />Plus he let&#39;s me, or used to let me, subblog from time to time, before you joined...and i super enjoyed that, <br />( he even offered to let me blog one of my own puzzles...and trusted me to blog about one of his) <br />but you may have no idea what sort of time and dedication this special blog takes...and i even had @puzzlegirl AND@sethg on total techinal back up!<br /><br />So let me just say that technically i thoughtthis puzzle was a perfect Monday...real phrases, consistent on many levels, interesting grid fill,both in terms of fun words like NEOPHYTE and SCALAWAG and KLEPTO as well as having crunchy letters and an almost pangram.<br />Who&#39;s to say @gareth that a J in the upper right may not have resulted in an even more enjoyable puzzle!<br /><br />There was a J in that this puzzle brought me Joy. ;)Acmenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-88277664785897267892012-01-09T16:21:24.596-05:002012-01-09T16:21:24.596-05:00Midday report of relative difficulty (see my 8/1/2...Midday report of relative difficulty (see my 8/1/2009 post for an explanation of my method):<br /><br />All solvers (median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)<br /><br />Mon 5:57, 6:50, 0.87, 5%, Easy<br /><br />Top 100 solvers<br /><br />Mon 3:26, 3:40, 0.94, 25%, Easy-Mediumsanfranman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/15118732156312301425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-29448798780948444092012-01-09T15:19:35.236-05:002012-01-09T15:19:35.236-05:00Evil Doug - Clearly a waste of cheap vodka...and n...Evil Doug - Clearly a waste of cheap vodka...and not even a trace of Certs? Is there no end to the daughter&#39;s poor taste?<br /><br />Anon @ 11:56 - One of the reasons I read Evil Doug everyday is because he let&#39;s me know when Rex is serious and wrong as well as when Rex is just being ridiculous. I always assume Rex is serious, even when he posts a picture of the wrong person with the same name that appears in the puzzle, says he&#39;s never seen Silence of the Lambs and complains about the NYT revealing the answers to the puzzle on the same day hurting his Blog....<br /><br />JFCAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-56762575839312912882012-01-09T15:16:35.346-05:002012-01-09T15:16:35.346-05:00Nice, easy Monday.
Favorite answer was KLEPTO.
L...Nice, easy Monday.<br /><br />Favorite answer was KLEPTO.<br /><br />Liked all the theme answers today.<br /><br />Broncos had the fastest overtime win ever yesterday - 11 seconds!JenCThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18290169184354765840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-8031199124048028702012-01-09T15:14:59.218-05:002012-01-09T15:14:59.218-05:00@Lewis, @ChefBea, @JohnV: and I&#39;m in Sparta...@Lewis, @ChefBea, @JohnV: and I&#39;m in Spartanburg, just across the line from Asheville and Charlotee. Maybe we should convene an ACPT-Southeast Region...archaeoprofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17956231727789223463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-52607224062442496872012-01-09T15:03:53.956-05:002012-01-09T15:03:53.956-05:00&quot;Jaws&quot;, 31&#39;s NW-corridor horror stor...&quot;Jaws&quot;, 31&#39;s NW-corridor horror story:<br /><br />JAWS<br />ERIC<br />FALA<br />FLYLIKE...<br /><br />Har.<br />Great debut anyway, Dewey dude. thUmbsUp.Masked and Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com